yuka mukai

“…Not as far as I know. Sorry to let your hopes down. I h-have amnesia, though, so I could be a dragon stuck in a human form. This body doesn’t feel like my usual one.”

He said this in such a quiet tone it was legitimately hard to tell if he was serious or just being very sarcastic here.

“…B-bored? When you’re stuck in a scary place like this, with heaps of mysteries? That’s kind of…strange. With a place full of mysteries…I’d have thought nobody would be…bored…”

“Ah,” Yuka began with a tilt of her head. “That’s true but I can’t really bring myself to go exploring.” She leaned forward with a sort of shrug traveling up her shoulders. “I’ve heard there’s monsters in some places and I’m not really fit to fight if they’re super strong. I’ll just wait for everyone to go out first before I see it for myself.” Yuka smiled before throwing the question back to him. “And how about you? Discovered any mysteries?”

   -+-> Hu…man

Another word he had to test out. It sounded…strange. Unnatural. But at the same time, it had a certain familiar comfortableness to it that made it settle on the tongue. Darkleer shook his horned head, his long hair swaying slightly. What would she be, if not alien?

   -+-> 1 am…a tr011    -+-> Tr011s are a11 1 have e%perienced bef0re

As she looked up at him, he gritted his teeth harder, the sharp whites grating against each other in a state of tension.

Yuka gave her cheeks a light pat with her fingertips. Danger was still all around them and here she was happily thinking about fairy tales and bedtime stories, although none of them really put trolls in a good light.  “I’ve never met a troll but the ones I read about lived under bridges or in caves.” She started then stopped. “Not that there’s anything bad if you actually do! I-uh. I guess it doesn’t matter but I’m happy to meet you, anyway. Thanks for saving me. Dying again would have...sucked.”

The word rolled off of the troll’s tongue as if it were something foreign, unknown to him. His mouth was twisted in a way that made him look like he was trying to understand something, trying with all of his heart to figure out what she meant by her words. What he had stated was a simple truth. It wasn’t meant to elicit an emotional response. It definitely wasn’t supposed to elicit an apology.

What did this small, small creature have to apologize to him for?

Approaching her slowly, Darkleer looked down at the girl, tilting his head slightly. She must have been less than half as tall as he was, and the difference was made all the more striking at her cowering. He didn’t know what to do, and that made him sweat even more, a natural discomfort rolling off of his body. Even so, he started to reach out, before slowly pulling his hand back. No, not now.

Stop. The word began to play on a loop. Yuka commanded herself. Stop. The trembling breaths slowed, her shaking subsided. Stop. Lowering her hands to either side of her face, Yuka stared at the ground. “I-” She started just to test her voice. It was weak but constant. “I’m a human.” Then, the question prompted some wondering on her part. If he was not a human, what was he? The train of thought lead to another inquiry. If he was not human, then she was technically an alien, right? Her hands fell to her sides as she raised her head. “Am I an alien to you?”

No matter how he raised his book to his face and hid behind it, he could still feel the stares. A downside of being able to be ‘seen’, to be certain - he was shy, and having all these people staring at him was making trying to get used to an already-scary place a lot scarier than it needed to be.

“…Is there….s-something on my face? P-please don’t…look at me that way….”

“Sorry, I just had a silly thought. With all the different worlds talk, I imagined you’d end up being a dragon in disguise or something.” She closed her book. “ I’m probably just too bored.”

One thing these monsters likely did not expect was the presence of someone who had been conditioned by a place like that his entire life. Moving at a speed one could only describe as unnatural, the gray-blue form sped through the clearing like a train off its rails, crushing anything in its way. A single strike caused the smaller ones to evaporate instantly, and the rest were torn apart into submission with massive hands, the horned being’s massive muscles bulging as he made short work of these pursuing beasts. 

The ground was littered with gold by the time they were all gone, leaving only one massive, fanged creature behind, breathing heavily and wiping the sweat from his face. 

   -+-> H0w…unc00th

When he finally spoke, his voice was a strange mix of a low growl and a whisper, both nervous and threatening at once. Darkleer turned to face the victim in all this, eyes hidden by his headgear, his mouth twisted into an uncomfortable grimace.

She wasn’t sure what to say. Presented before her was not the pack of monsters nor the giant bird she had envisioned but another being altogether. Yuka stared but her attention was caught by the twinkling of the gold pieces scattered on the ground, their shine reflecting the waning sun. She was safe. Probably. The thought then repeated. She was safe. Someone was here. She was safe. The more it was thought, the truer it sounded. 

Then the thought receded and the words he said were brought to mind. “U-” What was she to say? It was true. Yuka had strolled into a new area without quite realizing her circumstances. She had overestimated herself. The sensation she had felt when she first defeated the monsters at the very beginning surfaced again and brought a prickling warmth to her features. How dumb, really. She closed her eyes and wiped at her face. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking at all. I thought...it doesn’t matter. God, that was scary.”